


The Ocean at the End

by spaceconversii



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 19:41:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18156185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceconversii/pseuds/spaceconversii
Summary: Lance goes missing and the team has to move on...





	The Ocean at the End

**Author's Note:**

> whats up my homies, i dont know how angsty this is because i literally wrote it fueled on self hate and Redbull, but it has a nice ending i like to think

“BANG”

A loud sound resonated through the paladins' headsets, causing worry to ripple through them.

“Who was that?”

“What happened?”

“Is everyone okay?”

Three variations were spoken into the coms, then, a small voice spoke up, sounding worried and very upset.

“Lance? Lance are you okay?” Pidge’s voice wavered just a little.

“Lance? Buddy?” Hunk, now realizing Lance’s absence, called into the com, he only got static in return.

“Lance please be okay!” Keith’s voice cracked a rare moment that could only make everyone realize the terror of the situation.

“Lance! We need you!”

“Lance please,”

\-------------------

After looking for lance for months, with Allura as the blue lion, they finally accepted they wouldn't ever see their sharpshooter again.

Meals were quiet, the team was holding on to their lost paladin and they were falling apart.

They couldn’t do missions as well, Pidge spent hours in her room with her robots, she tried and tried to find a way to locate Lance but to no avail. She couldn’t focus whenever she tried to program anything, she just ended up staring at the lance figure she made while trapped on the trash planet. Hunk tried to bake his feelings away, but his special ingredient was lost, it was almost as if just knowing Lance would be there, enjoying it in a few hours, made the recipe perfect. Keith trained throughout the day but ended up just staring at the place lance would always sit, wishing he were there to fill the silence with his dumb jokes or his pointless pick-up lines. Shiro never showed much around the team, but he was hurting as well. Late at night, if you walked past his room, you could hear him talking to himself, he constantly beat himself up for not noticing lance was in trouble, and for not being more of a figure for him. Coran missed Lance awfully, he always felt as if lance kept him young, and now that he was gone, he started to notice gray hairs poking through. Of course, Allura missed him, she actually enjoyed his silliness and felt that he was needed for the team to stick together, and now he was gone and her suspicions were correct.

“He would want a funeral” Hunk said, breaking the silence one night at dinner, causing everyone to look up at him.

“Hunk’s right. He would want us to move on,” Keith jutted out, “I think he would, anyway.”

The team agreed to hold a funeral the next day, pidge gathered things that made her think of him, the video game controller, his face creme, his hairbrush, a few coins left from the fountain at the mall. Keith grabbed an old jacket of lance’s that was in his room, and pictures from the garrison. Hunk brought Lance’s favorite cookies, lots of pictures from their childhood, and a box of notes they would pass in class. Shiro brought a tiny bi pride flag and his favorite picture of Lance. Allura brought a Ganke crystal, a symbol of love and pride, and a bouquet of flowers that represented respect and longing. Coran brought what he was going to give lance for his birthday, just a day after lance went missing, still wrapped up.

When everything was placed in a shelf in the hallway for all to see, they all stood next to one another, looking at the things that they collected, standing in silence, tears streaming down their faces. 

Pidge broke the silence with an unexpected gasp for air, then sobbing. She turned to Keith and hugged him, her tears wetting his shirt, Keith patted her head, new to this type of situation, and leaned his head on hunk’s chest, they cried.

Shiro, Coran, and Allura left to think to themselves but the three other young paladins stayed in their spot, they dropped to the ground and leaned against the wall, all leaning and crying onto one another, they stayed together in that hallway and eventually fell asleep, their faces wet and their hair sticking to their cheeks. Shiro came during the night, lit lance’s candles and placed a blanket on the three, looking at lances pictures before he went to his room. 

 

The alarm blaring woke the three up in the hallway. Pidge, Hunk, and Keith quickly fixed their hair and wiped tried tears from each other's faces before running into the main room.

“What's going on?” Keith jutted out,  approaching Allura.

“We have reason to believe that there is something dangerous in this quadrant, we have sensed large amounts of quintessence.” 

“Get to your lions,” Shiro called out, and everyone followed, they already felt better about Lance.

Getting dressed in uniform and entering their lions, they talked as usual and felt better than ever before. They planned and talked about their situations, knowing each’s place, they set out.

 

“Guys I have a visual.” Keith was the first to speak of something related to the current mission, “It looks like a base, but all the lights are out.”

“That’s strange,” Pidge ran her diagnostics scan, searching the base that Keith had found, “It seems as if the whole base is powerless but the quintessence is coming from that location, Keith I’m sending you a map of the quintessence locator, if you get in it should lead you right to the source and we can piece it from there.”

“Got it.” Keith went in, finding a docking bay that pidge hacked and had Hunk guard around his lion as he got out to investigate.

Activating his boosters, he flew through doors and doors, following his guide to a dark, broken hallway. Centuries were all down, shot by something. Slash marks through the hallway made Keith cautious, but he knew the marks weren't fresh. As Keith finally got to the last room, the one that the quintessence was held in, he breathed sharply, prepared his stance, and burst in.

 

The room was empty, which confused Keith, “If the room is empty, where is the-”

 

A loud terrifying shriek sounded and hurt Keith’s ears “Did you guys hear that?”

 

No response.

 

“G-guys?”

 

The door slammed shut, locking Keith in the room, causing Keith to activate his Bayard into a sword.

“Who goes there?” Keith pivoted around, searching everywhere until a dark purple light formed just in front of him.

 

“Oh yes, I knew you would come.”

 

Keith could recognize that voice anywhere, “Witch.”

 

Haggar stood just a few feet in front of him, Keith jumped at her but she disappeared, then reappeared just behind him.

 

“Well I thought there would be remote enough to hide my little pet, but I guess not.” Haggar walked over to a side room, opening the small door, she snapped her gruesome fingers, “get up,” she began to use magic to lift whatever was in the cell and Keith prepared for a fight.

 

Setting the thing down, she brushed her hands on her cloak. Keith lowered his stance, whatever was in that cage wasn't dangerous, it didn't even try to stand when Haggar set it down. “Well have fun, I've run all the experiments i need.” She kicked at the lump of clothes on the floor, that Keith had still not adjusted his eyes too. “Get up you worthless thing. I think it’s broken” she laughed a knowing laugh.

 

With that, she was gone.

 

Keith slowly approached the thing, but as he got closer, he saw what he couldn’t believe.

 

“Lance?”

 

Keith dropped to his knees and started to sob, the mangled body of their teammate lay before him. Keith picked up the body, holding Lance’s head to his own chest, feeling his hair which was shaved to the scalp, making it easy to see scars and dried blood. Lance’s arms were covered in scars, bruises, and unknown substances, they lay by his side, limp. Keith regained control as he tried to feel for his pulse. Pressing his fingers deep behind lance’s left ear, which the lobe was torn off, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

 

“Lance, please.” five seconds passed, Keith, pressed his fingers deeper, and when he felt nothing, he desperately held his head to Lance’s chest. 

 

“Keith, what's going on?” 

 

The sudden voice of Shiro scared him, the comms had been turned back on, but he continued to search for a pulse. Then, he heard the tiniest ragged beat of his heart. 

 

“I-I found him”

\-----------------------

 

Keith carried Lance’s tiny and thin body to the red lion, quickly flying back to the castle and getting Coran to set up a healing pod.

 

The paladins bombarded him with questions as he flew, but he was crying too hard to answer. When he finally arrived at the castle, and unboarded the lion carrying Lance, the paladins watched and when they finally made out the small figure as their friend Lance, they ran to him. 

 

They all cried as Lance was taken to a healing pod and Hunk, Pidge, and Keith waited, standing right by the pod as Coran told them what to expect.

 

“He obviously had a tracker, I removed it. I don't know how long it will take for him to recover, the pod says he will be physically better in 68 Vargas but it could be wrong-” Coran’s voice shook a little as he stared at Lance’s body, “He seems to have suffered severe head trauma, there are large amounts of unknown substances in his blood and brain, Keith, did Haggar say anything to you?”

 

“She said they did experiments, but I don't know what kind. What could they possibly want to experiment with a human body? We don't have much.”

 

“I don't know exactly, but I have suspicions. I will need to talk with Allura to confirm though.” Coran left after he stood there in silence for a few seconds, leaving the four paladins alone.

 

Hunk bit his nails as Pidge talked relentlessly. Keith just sat cross-legged, staring at Lance’s torn face.

 

“Will he ever be the same?”

 

Keith broke his stare at Lance to look over at Pidge, she was staring right into Keith’s eyes and he could see the tears build up, at that moment she looked so young. Keith looked at Hunk as well, who was staring at the floor still, then looked at Lance, his small frame looked even smaller, and finally seeing his own reflection in the glass.

 

“We’re all kids,” Keith half-whispered, “Pidge, he’s gonna be okay. He will need to recover but we can help.”

\--------------

Days passed waiting on Lance, their main focus was Lance. Alongside missions, however, they still spent every extra minute they had with him. The pod had fixed him up the best it could, and he was moved to solitary confinement, for an easier transition when he woke up. Only 3 days after he was out o the pod did he wake up, Coran estimated two weeks, but the day he woke up, they were all unexpecting. Keith played some game called Uno with Hunk and Pidge in the hallway outside LancE's recovery room, Shiro was with Allura setting up plans and Coran was simply watching the three play Uno, constantly asking questions and calling out paladins when they had certain cards left.

 

“Keith you only have red cards left! The color is blue!”

 

“Coran! You cant tell them that!”

 

Pidge and Hunk laughed hysterically while planning to take Keith down, but inside the room, Lance was opening his eyes slowly. He heard muffled laughter and at first, he panicked and his eyes flew open, but the laughter sounded genuine and happy. Where was he? He looked down at his arms and saw tubes going into his veins. Not more experiments, please. Then he noticed his hands weren’t tied down, he began to rip the IV out causing some machines to go off, alerting Coran of Lance’s movement.

 

“Lance!” Coran jumped when he saw what Lance was doing and ran to the door, the three paladins stood up and looked in the window, seeing Lance awake made them so happy, all three of them ran to get Allura.

 

Lance looked as soon as the door opened and jumped off the bed, pressing himself to the corner of the room, waiting for a galra soldier to come to get him. But Coran walked through instead, and Lance began to cry. Coran gently helped Lance back on the table and put the monitors back on him while Lance sobbed, and Coran set the bed to be more comfortable so Lance could sit up.

 

“Lance?” Coran waved his hand in front of him, “Lance can I ask you questions?”

 

Lance furrowed his brows, then nodded, his whole body randomly shaking at times.

 

“Can you talk?”

 

Lance opened his mouth as if to say something but then shook his head yes.

 

“Do you want to talk?”

 

No.

 

“Are you comfortable?”

 

Yes.

 

“Do you need anything?”

 

Lance used his hands to gesture that he wanted a pen and paper, and Coran got them.

 

_ “Water?” _

 

“Of course Lance,” Coran stepped to where water could be provided and gave him a generous cup of water, which lance sloppily drank all of.

 

_ “Thank you” _

 

“Of course Lance, my boy.”

 

Lance smiled sheepishly, then, frowning, scribbled more on the paper.

 

_ “Where is everyone?” _

 

“They wanted to give you space-” Lance’s eyes lit up then began scribbling again.

 

_ “They’re okay?” _

 

“Of course, Lance.”

 

Lance breathed deeply and laid his head back, smiling just a little, causing Coran to ask another question.

 

“Are you ready to see them?”

 

Lance nodded furiously and the room opened quickly, letting everyone pile in. They were quiet but loud in their actions, all coming directly to him and crying as they put a hand on his arm. Lance winced just a little, but enough to make everyone notice and back up. Lance held up a finger then began writing again.

 

_ “I am so glad all of you are okay!” _

 

“What do you mean? Why would you be?” Keith asked curiously, but Lance's face dropped to sadness, looking at Keith only for a second, then looking back down.

 

“Lance, we need to talk about what happened, but we can wait until you're ready.” Shiro broke the strange silence.

 

Lance began writing, but he kept messing up.

 

_ “I can talk about it now, just only with you, Shiro.” _

 

Everyone but Shiro nodded and left, but they stayed outside the room to listen and watch. Lance couldn't see them watching though because the glass was one-sided.

 

“What happened? From the start?”

 

Lance deeply breathed and then began to write, crossing words out a lot but forming sentences slowly. 

_ “During the mission I was shot, some Galra soldier found me and took me to their leader. Apparently, Haggar was looking for someone to test on anyway. I don't remember most of it but it started with torture, to try to get me to tell them what I knew. They did a lot, a lot of it I don't remember, but they broke bones, beat me, stuff like that. For only a little they kept me with other prisoners, they didn’t know I was a paladin but they knew I got taken out way more often and came back worse each time. They helped me recover until the Galra found out. That was one of my most vivid memories, the day they took me. First, they had to have a Galra soldier hold them back and another galra beat me with things he had on his gun. Then, I tried to hold onto the other prisoners as they took me out but they were strong, they overpowered us and knocked me to the ground.” _

Shiro noticed lance had stopped writing, then he noticed tears falling on the paper.

 

_ “They shot them. _

_ Then, it was solitary confinement, each day I woke up with something else in my arm, something else attached to me. Haggar visited quite a bit and kept trying new things. After she found what she wanted, they left me by myself, and one day, after a Galra had his go at me, he forgot to lock the door and I was able to escape, they found me and broke my legs, they told me there was no reason to escape because they had killed you all. That's why I wanted to see you all so bad, they taunted me with that for weeks, and Haggar heard that it was a better form of torture than physical pain, she imported fake memories with magic. Memories of all your deaths. Then, when I still wouldn’t talk, they used a sensory device on me. Every time i moved or talked, it would electrocute me. But that made me more unlikely to talk and them angrier, and when the base was attacked by rebel forces, they hid me in a cage, Haggar only came to tell me news of how things were going every week, but they were all fake, she told me that Earth had been destroyed, that all inhabitants were either dead or being used, all importing fake memories too. I guess I was her punching bag, but I never know what she wanted from me.” _

 

Lance stopped writing for Shiro to read, Shiro, nodded, his mouth covered by his hand, and began to talk when he finished. Pointing at the deep cuts all over Lance's arms, he asked, “Torture?”

 

Lance smiled sadly and shook his head.

_ “Me"  _ Lance looked at Shiro and kept writing,  _" after they told me you guys were dead, I tried everything to stop my captivity, even-"_

Shiro cried and hugged lance, telling him it was going to be okay and he was safe now. Then, the paladins entered and they were also crying. They all read Lance’s writing and asked questions about certain events, Lance answered, until Coran interrupted that Lance had to get some sleep, Lance was tired but he didn’t know how to sleep anymore. 

 

“Will everyone come back tomorrow?” Lance wrote “Are you all sure this is real? Not magic?”

 

“Not magic,” Keith smiled at lance and they all left, Lance was alone. He finally laid down after thinking about what he could do tomorrow now he wasn't in galra capture.

 

Keith was sleeping in the hallway when he heard Lance’s breathing get quick and heavy, standing up from his spot in the hallway, Keith looked in. 

 

Lance was shaking his head furiously and crying, he would yell out almost but his own voice got caught, beads of sweat grew on his forehead and he thrashed the blankets off the bed, Keith slowly walked in and sat by lance’s bed, stroking his forehead softly and lance began to calm down, they both slept peacefully together.

 

In the morning, Coran decided it would be good to take Lance on a walk. Although his legs were broken,  he could still use fresh air, Coran argued. So they decided to stop on a planet much like earth, but the air is cleaner and fresher. The whole team could use the break, so they found a nice place to stay on the planet and prepared to go out, as pidge wheeled Lance down the hallway, they passed Lance’s shrine.

 

Lance looked quizzingly at Pidge and she explained, “We made this after the 6th month of looking for you. Honestly, we followed every clue, the team was falling apart, none of us were getting any sleep. So we made this to help with the idea that you were gone. But you’re back now so, everything is fine.”

 

Lance smiled to himself as Pidge continued to walk down the hall and off the docking bay, the paladins made it a surprise to where they were going so as they descended, pidge covered Lance’s eyes. When the wheelchair finally touched the ground, Lance felt the soft, graininess that is sun-touched sand. Pidge retracted her hands and Lance saw a beautiful blue beach before him, the salty air slightly blew in his face and calmed his mind, Hunk then took lance up to the tide so his feet could be lapped by the seawater, one of Lance's favorite thing about the ocean.

 

As the team stood there, feeling the sand and the water with him, the air blowing in their faces and clearing their minds, they felt finally at peace. Lance closed his eyes and he knew this couldn’t be a dream, it was so much better than that.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading, i always need suggestions for improvements, if you want to work together on writing tell me! please comment and give kudos, i love yall


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